Now Let's See That Entryway Again....

With a BLACK DOOR! Yay! I love, love, love the look of black interior doors. I'm actually starting to get brave enough to do all the doors throughout the house this way, but for now here's one....

 I think it makes a HUGE difference!

Kitchen Table Redo

We have a beautiful kitchen table that I've always loved, but I just felt like it was too big and dark in the new space. Here it is...(still can't find that picture!!)

I wanted a cheapo option that I could makeover myself, so off to IKEA we traveled and came home with this....

  

Not too exciting, huh?? So the first thing I did was stain the top with Minwax Special Walnut (the same stain as my dining room table)...

I actually put three coats of stain to get it as dark as possible, then added two coats of a semigloss polyurethane. Next I painted the base and legs with Sherwin Williams Honeycomb. It was a pretty bold yellow to say the least!

 Here's where I should probably add that I didn't just use the regular paint, I made my own chalk paint. I use one cup of flat paint, 2 tbsp of un-sanded grout and 1 tablespoon of hot water. Mix the grout and water together first, then add to the paint and mix, mix, mix. The paint will be super thick, like pudding, but boy it goes on like butter, and I only had to use one coat. After the paint dried I gave it a light sanding (220 sandpaper) and started waxing it (very, very, very, very lightly) with Annie Sloan Dark Wax which really helped tone down the yellow. Yes, I'll spend the money on the wax because it will last forever and ever. However, I will NOT spend over $40 for a QUART of the chalk paint, that's why you see the above recipe. :) It was about $13 for the quart of yellow paint.

Aaaaaaand TAAADAAA!!! The finished product. I think it's quite lovely.